Description
“Resonant and occasionally gut-wrenching.”
―Entertainment Weekly
“Evident throughout are humor and rage, respect and loving irreverence.”
―Oprah Magazine
“The overwhelming takeaway from Mr. Alexie’s memoir is triumph, that of one writer’s ability to overcome hardscrabble roots, medical bad luck and generations of systemic racism–all through an uncommon command of language and metaphor.”
―James Yeh, New York Times
“If candor is Alexie’s superpower, accuracy might be his nemesis…. Throughout, Alexie is courageous and unflinching, delivering a worthy and honest eulogy by showing us his mother and himself in full, everything spectacular and everything scarred.”―Michael Kleber-Diggs, The Minneapolis Star Tribune
“You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me is a marvel of emotional transparency.”
―Beth Kephart, The Chicago Tribune
“These pages are scored by resentment, hurt, guilt, anger, fear, but they are also full of gratitude, admiration, and tenderness.”
―Priscilla Gilman, The Boston Globe
The Instant New York Times Bestseller
One of the most anticipated books of 2017–Entertainment Weekly and Bustle
A searing, deeply moving memoir about family, love, loss, and forgiveness from the critically acclaimed, bestselling National Book Award-winning author of The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.
Family relationships are never simple. But Sherman Alexie’s bond with his mother Lillian was more complex than most. She plunged her family into chaos with a drinking habit, but shed her addiction when it was on the brink of costing her everything. She survived a violent past, but created an elaborate facade to hide the truth. She selflessly cared for strangers, but was often incapable of showering her children with the affection that they so desperately craved. She wanted a better life for her son, but it was only by leaving her behind that he could hope to achieve it. It’s these contradictions that made Lillian Alexie a beautiful, mercurial, abusive, intelligent, complicated, and very human woman.
When she passed away, the incongruities that defined his mother shook Sherman and his remembrance of her. Grappling with the haunting ghosts of the past in the wake of loss, he responded the only way he knew how: he wrote. The result is a stunning memoir filled with raw, angry, funny, profane, tender memories of a childhood few can imagine, much less survive. An unflinching and unforgettable remembrance, YOU DON’T HAVE TO SAY YOU LOVE ME is a powerful, deeply felt account of a complicated relationship. “There’s straight personal history here, as well as fable, poetry, and raw and mordant accounts of life….Unexpected revelations are a constant throughout this memoir”―Maureen Corrigan, NPR’s “Fresh Air”, 6 Books That Will Carry You Away
